I think I know what this means, but I don't know what my part of it is.

My head pastor and I were in the middle of this town that I never visited before and said one of our own passed away and the Church needed help cleaning up the mess. Some younger kid died in a car wreck off of this entrance to the highway and was left... well... let's just say it was gross. I only saw the aftermath of police tape and the hole in the concrete that was made when I was exiting the highway. I wanted to hurl. Strangely, though, it was a bright sunny day with blue skies and nice weather. I go on the highway following my pastor to the funeral for this kid. Apparently the whole Church came together to support the father and the family as my pastor attempted to lay hands on... well... what was left of the kid in order to raise him from the dead.

The father was Japanese and had a great feast waiting at the funeral for us for helping his son. He recently became a believer at the event.

Something was bugging me, though. If the kid was smashed into a bloody pulp, why were they having an open casket funeral. Turns out that when they prayed to raise him from the dead, the body became whole, but he didn't come back. It was enough of a miracle to get the father's attention. He was a master at sushi and was crying while serving his meal, but also seemed happy that his son's Church was holding him up. I remember the place where we had the feast being polished wood and lotsof brown and gold with a huge pot of Miso soup with eggs in it... onlythere were whole eggs being cooked in the Miso (which is weird because normally if you have "eggdrop" noodles, you only cook the whites). Man, though, the soup looked so flipping delicious.

Well, the actual funeral came along and they showed one of those "memory" videos of what he did while alive. He was young, like... 19. He was studying Japanese in order to study abroad and his last name was vividly Takashi (which I looked up and means either family piety, nobility or reverence). Something in me didn't want to watch the video for fear of seeing what he looked like after the accident, but TV's kept popping up in front of me to make me watch. I remember white text over red while they were showing pictures of him.

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I know my pastor recently went to Africa, but there's something about the Japanese part which is really bugging me about this. I know from past dreams that a sushi master = a great man of God and even Jesus. He's the one who prepares raw fish to be served for the kingdom of God. I am decently versed in Japanese culture and I've been trying to interpret what the foreign side of this would mean. First off, in ancient Japanese times, you had to be the lowest of the low to touch a dead body. To raise the dead as to touch the body would have severely went against Buddhist tradition who believe strongly in reincarnation. So this had to be something huge for a Japanese who was into the old ways of tradition to suddenly turn to God after at least the body was made whole.

Miso isn't supposed to be served with eggs. It usually has ingredients to represent the four seasons, but it is usually made out of sardine stock (more fish referance). It's a dish of contrast which is by Japanese tradition supposed to have ingredients that float and sink. It was like there were over-easy eggs in the soup, only more fluffy since it was all being boiled in the soup.

Nobody at my Church is Japanese, but there are lots of Philipino there. I don't think it involves them, though.